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ADDRESS 



RE PRESENT A TIVES 



jl RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS B 




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COMMONLY 

CALLED QUAKERS, 

IN 

PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, DELAWARE, &c. 

TO THE 

CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

JOSEPH & WILLIAM KITE, PRINTERS 




ADDRESS 



REPRESENTATIVES 



iaeligtous g)0ciet5 of JPrientis, 



COMMONLY 



CALLED QUAKERS, 



PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, DELAWARE, &c. 



CITIZZilTS OF THE UZTITED STATES. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
JOSEPH & WILLIAM KITE, PRINTERS. 

18 37. 









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Ala Yearly Meeting ef Friends held in Philadelp/iia, hy adjournments from 
the llth of the Fourth month, to^lst of the same, inclusive, IS37, 

The suffering condition of our fullovv men, descendants of the African 
race, who are subjected to the rigours of unconditional slavery, having long 
engaged the sympathy and commiseration of this meeting, the subject vpas 
referred at our last annual assembly, to the serious attention of the Meeting for 
Sufferings. An address to the citizens of the United States, prepared by that 
meeting, was now introduced by the reading of tlieir minutes, bringing into 
view the injustice of slavery, the enormities vvfliich it authorises by the traffic 
in the persons of men, extensively prosecuted within the United States, and 
the degradation of morals unavoidably attendant on such an unrighteous 
system, wherever it is tolerated ; and inviting our fellow-citizens to a calm 
and dispassionate examination of this momentous subject, with a sincere 
desire to act in conformity with the principles of universal righteousness, in 
according to that people the enjoyment of their natural and religious rights; 
— as likewise the numerous and complicated injuries inflicted on the aborigi- 
nes of our country, and the duty incumbent upon us of endeavouring to 
extend to the feeble remnant of these once numerous tribes, the benefits 
of civilized life and religious instruction : — which address being read and 
deliberately considered, was approved ; and that meeting was directed to 
procure the printing of such number as they may judge needful for general 
distribution. 

Extracted from the Minutes, 

William Evans, Clerk. 



ADDRESS. 



To THE Citizens of the United States. 

Our minds have been seriously impressed with consid- 
erations relative to the present condition and future pros- 
pects of our country. In venturing to address our fellow- 
citizens on subjects of vital importance to the community, 
we trust we shall not be suspected of acting from party or 
political motives, or of desiz'ing to excite a feeling of an- 
tipathy towards any class of our fellow men. Our object 
is the promotion of the general good and the performance 
of our rehgious duly. Our principles are well known to 
be pacific, consistent, as we firmly believe, with the doc- 
trines of the gospel, which breathes " Glory to God in the 
highest, peace on earth, and good will to men." It has 
V frequently been our concern to counsel our members to 
abstain as much as possible from engagements, either alone 
or in connexion with others, which lead to strife and con- 
tention ; and to preserve towards all men a demeanor 
conformable to our religious profession. As we cannot 
resort to violence ourselves to obtain or secure our most 
dear and unquestionable rights, so we cannot countenance 
riotous or tumultuous proceedings in others, for the attain- 



( 4 ) 

ment of any object, however just or desirable ; yet we hold 
it to be a civil and religious right to raise our voice against 
injustice and oppression, whether extended to ourselves or 
to others. That national as well as individual transgres- 
sions are sooner or later visited by Divine judgments, is 
fully attested by the sacred records. And believing as we 
do, that injustice and oppression are practised by many in 
this land, we are induced to open our mouths for t'ne dumb, 
and to plead the cause of those who have neither the means 
nor the power to plead for themselves. 

In the early settlement of this country, the practice of 
importing and holding African slaves was incautiously in- 
troduced, and some of our predecessors in religious pro- 
fession, as well as others, fell into it ; but its utter repug- 
nance to the precepts of the gospel, and the natural rights 
of man, was soon perceived, and long before the close of 
the last century, an union of sentiment and practice on 
this subject was effected throughout the society. Having, 
upon religious grounds, cleared ourselves of holding our 
fellow men in slavery, we have believed it to be our duty 
from that period to bear our testimony against it, without 
being swayed by considerations of interest or policy. As 
our opinions and principles in relation to the rights of this 
people are not new, so they are unchanged, being found- 
ed, as we believe, on a basis which is fixed and immuta- 
ble. 

When we reflect that there are now within the United 
States, upwards of two millions of human beings detained 
in slavery ; who are held as goods and chattels, the pro- 



( 5 ) 

perty of other human beings, having similar passions with 
themselves ; that they are hable to be sold and transferred 
from hand to hand, like the beasts that perish ; that more 
than thirty thousand are annually sold and removed from 
the land of their birth to regions further south and west, 
and this not in families, but in companies composed chiefly 
of youths from twelve to twenty-five years of age, the 
nearest connexions of lite being thus frequently torn asun- 
der ; that the District of Columbia, under the exclusive 
legislation of Congress, is one of the scenes of this dis- 
graceful commerce; that the jails of the metropolis are 
used to confine the victims of this traffic, who are thus 
incarcerated, not because of their crimes, but because of 
the crimes of others, their slavery being the consequence 
of injuries inflicted by the hand of violence on them- 
selves or on their ancestors ; when we further reflect, that in 
several, if not in most of the slave-holding states, the slaves 
are systematically excluded from the means of improving 
their minds — that in some, even teaching them to read is 
treated as a crime ; and that all these things are found 
N among a people loudly proclaiming the freedom and equal- 
ity of their laws — a people professing the benign religion 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who came to made 
an end of sin, to finish transgression, and in the room there- 
of to bring in everlasting righteousness ; who has taught 
us that he regards the injuries done to the least of 
his children as done to himself; and has commanded 
us to love one another, and to do to all men as we 
would that they should do unto us — well may we in- 
quire, Shall not the Lord visit for these things ? Shall not 
his soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? 



( 6 ) 

We earnestly solicit the attention of our fellow-citizens 
to this momentous subject. These people are our fellow 
creatures ; and their condition among us demands our se- 
rious consideration. We know not the time when those 
scales, in which mountains are weighed, may turn. The 
parent of mankind is gracious. His care is over the small- 
est of his creatures ; and a multitude of men escape not 
his notice. And though many of them are trodden down 
and despised, yet he remembers them. He sees their 
affliction, and looks on the increasing exaltation of the op- 
pressor. He turns the channels of power, humbles the 
most haughty people, and give deliverance to the oppress- 
ed, at such periods as are consistent with his infinite wis- 
dom and justice. If we disregard the claims of mercy 
and justice in the season of prosperity, and employ our 
superior advantages of knowledge and power, not for the 
glory of the Giver and the good of men, but to degrade 
and depress a large part of his rational creation, below 
the station for which they were designed, it may be "by 
terrible things in righteousness that he will answer us" in 
this matter. 

If we look back to the period when the people of these 
United States assumed their station among the nations of the 
earth, and advert to the principles then solemnly proclaim- 
ed in the face of the world, we find them totally irrecon- 
cilable with the maintenance of slavery. Liberty was then 
declared to be an inalienable right, conferred by the Crea- 
tor himself. No intimation is given, that personal freedom 
is the boon of society, the creature of law, to be granted or 
withheld at the caprice of the wealthy and powerful. No 



( ^ ) 

exception is made ; and, indeed, none could be made, on 
account of colour or previous condition, without rendering 
the whole passage absurd. This avowal was made by 
those who resided where slavery was most predominant, 
as well as M'here it was least. It is remarkable that at the 
period in question, slavery was tolerated in every State of 
the Union, and yet the delegates i-n Congress assembled, 
ventured to sweep away its foundation at a stroke. In 
some of the States these principles were soon after carried 
into effect, by the immediate extinction of slavery, and in 
others, provision was made for its eventual abolition. As 
these doctrines have not been disavowed by the authority 
of any section of our country, we believe that consistency, 
even looking no higher, requires that slavery should cease 
from every part of our government. 

By a series of legislative enactments, Congress has 
expressed its abhorrence of the African slave trade. In 
1820 this traffic was denounced as piratical, and the 
punishment of death was prescribed for any person within 
our jurisdiction, who should be found engaged in it. Yet 
a traffic partaking of the character of this, and combining 
many of its atrocities, is prosecuted in the interior of our 
own country. If the foreign slave trade was prohibited, 
because of its iniquity, surely the domestic trade ought 
not to be tolerated. If the reduction of the unoffending 
natives of Africa into servitude, or the act of conveying 
them in that character across the Atlantic, is a crime to 
be punished with death, the detention of them, or their 
descendants, in slavery, and the traffic in their persons 
within the United States, cannot be innocent : and the 



( 8 ) 

continuance of the practice demands our serious conside- 
ration. 

It must be admitted, as a fact, which we can neither 
disguise nor conceal, that slavery, wherever it prevails, 
exercises an influence unfavourable to religion and morals, 
both among masters and slaves. With regard to the 
latter, it is, perhaps, universally admitted. Degrade the 
human character and intellect as we will, there is still an 
inextinguishable sense of the injustice of slavery. Hence, 
discontent and frequent irritation are its inseparable 
attendants. The obsequiousness required to the com- 
mands, however unjust or capricious, of those who control 
them, renders the maintenance of independent virtue 
almost, if not altogether, impossible. In all communities, 
the virtue of the people depends very much on the educa- 
tion of the young ; but what education can the slave 
possibly bestow on his offspring, even supposing him 
capable of it, where parents and children are under the 
absolute domination of others, who consider their own 
interest promoted by the debasement and ignorance of 
their slaves'? It is not probable that much sense of justice 
and of the rights of property, can be maintained amongst 
a people who see their own earnings appropriated without 
their consent to the accommodation of others. A scrupu- 
lous regard to the sanctity of the marriage covenant 
cannot be expected, where the connexion is Hable to be 
broken at any time, as the interest, will, or wants of the 
master may suggest. 

That the system is deleterious to the masters as well as 



( 9 ) 

the slaves, is equally true. The possession of irresponsible 
power, and the consequent temptations to its abuse, have 
a strong tendency to injure the moral feelings of its 
possessor. Whatever degree of humanity may be mingled 
with its exercise, it is obvious that the condition to which 
it applies could not possibly exist, if the injunction of our 
blessed Redeemer were duly regarded ; " All things 
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." 
Let it be remembered, that every departure from sound 
Christian principle, impairs our sensibility to right and 
wrong, and prepares the way for other and more glaring 
deviations. And as the sense of religious obligation 
dechnes among any people, the standard of morals will 
unavoidably sink. The exclusion of the slaves from the 
opportunity of enlarging and improving their minds, by 
learning to read the Holy Scriptures, must exert an 
unhappy influence upon the masters. How can they 
entertain a high sense of religious obligation, and pursue 
with assiduity the improvement of their own minds in 
piety and virtue, while they are carefully excluding their 
humble dependants from this invaluable advantage? How 
can they hft up their hands in prayer to the God and 
Father of mercies for his blessing on themselves and their 
oflspring, and for the extension of the Redeemer's king- 
dom on earth, while they endeavour thus to debar a part 
of his creatures, equally with themselves the objects of his 
redeeming love, from those means of attaining a know- 
ledge of the doctrines and principles of the Christian 
religion 1 

2 



( 10 ) 

Light is spreading among the nations of Christendom 
on the subject of human rights, and most of them have 
adopted measures to extirpate the slave trade. Some 
important movements have recently been made towards 
the extinction of slavery in a number of the West Indian 
islands, so that we may now reasonably conclude, that at 
no distant day the islands in the American Archipelago 
will be chiefly cultivated by freemen. This must increase 
the odium as well as the difliculty of maintaining the insti- 
tution of slavery here. It is not to be supposed that those 
who have cleared their hands of the practice, and who 
hail with satisfaction the light that is opening on the sub- 
ject, will again consent to return to so iniquitous a system, 
or cease to support the principles which they have adopted 
from a conviction of their conformity to reason and truth. 
If then a portion of our citizens tenaciously adhere to a 
system thus abhori'ent to the feelings of others, and to the 
principles which all have concurred to applaud, bickerings 
and jealousies can scarcely fail to arise and seriously 
disturb the harmony of our necessary intercourse. Indeed, 
it requires but little attention to the events of the day to 
perceive, that the existence of slavery is now exerting an 
^ influence highly prejudicial to the peace of our country. 
The responsibility of contributing, as citizens of our com- 
mon government, to support this unrighteous institution, 
and thus degrading the afflicted descendants of Africa, 
nearly to a level with the brute creation, is felt by many 
conscientious Christians to be serious and weighty ; hence, 
they cannot but desire that the subject may increasingly 
engage the solemn deliberation of their fellow-citizens, 



( 11 ) 

more particularly of those who, from the possession of 
power or influence, may be enabled to promote their 
liberation. 

To behold this portentous cloud spreading and thicken- 
ing with the progress of time, and every effort to dissipate it 
strenuously resisted, fills our minds with gloomy fore- 
bodings for ourselves and for our country, and more 
particularly for those immediately implicated in the evil 
of slavery. We are not about to dictate in what manner 
slavery shall be finally extinguished, but we believe it is 
obUgatory on those who hold their fellow men in bondage, 
to enter into a solemn examination of the subject. When 
they have been aroused by the appearance of danger, to 
enter into a close inspection of the nature and consequen- 
ces of slavery, their voices have been as loud, and their 
declarations as forcible in reprobation of the practice, as 
those of any people among us. The testimony of one of 
their own statesmen was then felt and acknowledged. " I 
tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just ; 
that his justice cannot sleep forever ; that, considering 
numbers, nature and natural means only, a change of 
circumstances is among possible events ; that it may 
become probable by supernatural interference. The 
Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in 
such a contest." Under such circumstances, we have 
seen a disposition to clear themselves of the evil as a 
means of escaping its consequence. A practice, which, 
in the moment of danger, appears unjust and iniquitous, 
must be equally so when that danger is withdrawn from 
the view. To arrive at a correct conclusion on this 



( 12 ) 

awfully momentous subject, it is necessary that the 
demands of interest and the clamours of passion should be 
silenced, and a sincere desire cultivated to pursue such 
course as may be consistent with the Divine will and the 
promotion of universal righteousness. With such desires 
steadily maintained, we firmly believe that the light of 
truth, the Spirit of our blessed Redeemer, which can 
neither deceive nor be deceived, would manifest the 
necessity and the mode of breaking the yoke and letting 
the oppressed go free. Whatever prejudice may assert, 
or sophistry attempt to establish, the inconsistency of 
slavery with universal righteousness, is too obvious to 
every enlightened mind to admit of dispute. And to 
suppose that the wickedness and cupidity of man are 
capable of introducing an evil into civil society, which the 
light of the gospel and the labours of the devoted followers 
of Christ are incompetent to remedy, is to distrust the 
power and the moral government of our gracious Creator. 
If with an eye to the teachings and leadings of the Spirit 
of truth, we pursue the course which our duty as men 
and Christians requires, we may rely on the wisdom and 
goodness of God, who governs all consequences, to 
reward our endeavours and bless the work of our hands. 

We would also invite the attention of our fellow-citizens 
to the condition of those descendants of the African race 
who are free. It is sorrowfully true, that in many parts 
of our country they are subject to unjust and oppressive 
restrictions, which are not applied to persons of our own 
colour ; and that their personal freedom is liable to be 



( 13 ) 

wrested from them by the operation of unequal laws. In 
nearly every part of the United States, they are the objects 
of cruel prejudice, which tends to produce that very 
degradation, which it assumes as its justification. That 
the benefits of education are rendered more dit^icult of 
access to them than to the youths of our own complexion, 
is well known. We apprehend that not only our religious 
duty, but our interest, as we value the peace and good of 
civil society, requires that we should manifest our gratitude, 
for our own superior advantages, by labouring to promote 
the improvement of this part of the human family ; that 
we should cultivate feelings of true Christian benevolence 
towards them, and prepare them, as far as example 
and assistance can effect it, for civil and religious useful- 
ness. 

There is yet another class of our fellow men whose 
multiplied wrongs have excited our tender commiseration. 
We arllude to the aborigines of our country, — once the 
undisputed proprietors of this extensive continent, but many 
of them now driven from the homes of their fathers, in 
defiance of the claims of justice, and the faith of treaties, 
to seek a precarious subsistence in distant and uncultivated 
regions. If we advert to the condition of these people 
when our ancestors first settled among them, the kindness 
manifested by many of those, then numerous and powerful 
tribes, towards their feeble visiters, and the various com- 
plicated acts of injustice since meted to them, we must 
acknowledge that a heavy load of guilt rests on our 
country. We earnestly desire that the people of the 



( 14 ) 

United States, the present occupants of land from which 
the Indians have been expelled, by means abhorrent to 
justice and humanity, may duly consider the debt which 
our ancestors and ourselves have incurred, and extend 
to them, in their wilderness abode, the aids of science and 
the benefits of literary and religious instruction. The 
feeble remnant still remaining on this side of the Mississippi, 
are no less the proper objects of our care and benevolence. 
We believe it to be our religious duty to discountenance 
the attempts of avaricious men to dislodge them, either 
by violence or fraud, from the remaining scanty pittance 
of their once ample possessions ; and that it is obligatory 
upon us to endeavour to improve their condition by 
instruction in the arts of civilized life, and to inculcate on 
their minds the excellency and importance of the gospel 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Finally, it is our sincere desire and prayer, that it may 
please the Sovereign Ruler of nations, to influence the 
hearts of those who are placed in authority to seek for 
his counsel, and incline the inhabitants of these United 
States to feelings of tenderness for the oppressed, that 
there may be a hearty co-operation between the people 
and our rulers, in according to all, without distinction of 
nation or colour, the free enjoyment of their civil and 
religious rights. Thus we may hope to experience the 
fulfilment of the evangelical prophecy, " I will make thine 
officers, peace, and thine exactors, righteousness ; violence 
shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruc- 
tion within thy borders ;" and that the Most High will 



( 15 ) 

still extend to our country the blessings of harmony and 
peace, and make us a light to the surrounding nations. 

Signed in and on behalf of a Meeting of the Repre- 
sentatives of the Religious Society of Friends, 
commonly called Quakers, in Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, &c., held in Philadelphia, the 14th 
of the Fourth Month, 1837. 

JONATHAN EVANS, Clerk. 



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